Celestial Descendant

Chapter 4: The Road to Eldoria

The darkness of night had descended, and only the dim, golden light of the campfire lit the vast woodlands. A group of bandits sat around the crackling flames, half a day's ride from Eldoria, a bustling trade city that was to be their destination. The light danced across their faces, while further off, the boy finally started to stir, coming around from the blow that had knocked him out cold some time before.

Thug One slowly sharpened his knife, his gaze lazily moving to the dancing flames. Thug Two lay back with a piece of dried meat, gnawing on it and from time to time looking at the boy. Finally, Kael, sitting opposite them, broke the silence.

"Ah, you're finally awake, are you? It took you quite a while," Kael remarked, casting the boy a frosty look. "That's good. You'll need all your strength for the journey still ahead of us."

The boy blinked awake, his gaze following the dancing embers of the fire. His tummy growled but he hadn't quite cognized this thing called hunger-not in a conscious way, at any rate. He looked around at the desultory scraps of food the bandits were gnawing.

Thug Two smirked, which tossed a piece of bread in his direction; the morsel struck him squarely in the chest. The boy's bound hands strained to pick it up, clumsily fumbling with the crust.

"Look at him," Thug Two chuckled. "You'd think the kid never ate before in his life."

"He'll figure it out," Kael growled, not even looking at him. "We need him in one piece, so he'd best eat. The traders in Eldoria won't pay for a starved corpse." The boy clumsily sank his teeth into the bread, trying to handle it in the same manner as the bandits. He chewed slowly, his jaw working against the texture, before swallowing with great difficulty. His movements were stiff, almost robotic, as he tried understanding the actions happening around him. The bandits briefly looked towards him and went back to their meal without much noticing. Thug One cleaned the edge of his knife on his sleeve, casting a glance at Kael. "He hardly reacted to the chaos of the battlefield, yet he loses it over rabbits being skinned. What's going on with that?"

"Perhaps he has seen too much," Thug Two said with a shrug. "Still, it is weird. He's powerful, but his brain. who knows?"

Kael was leaning against a log, his eyes now turning to the boy. "That matters naught," he said. "He is just a payday. When we finally reach Eldoria, we can sell him to the highest bidder. Many traders go there for fresh bodies: refugees, travelers, and some of those rich types eager for workers.

Eldoria-a name that inspires both respect and loathing in equal measures.

The trade city stood as the second-largest in the Kingdom of Azeroth, second only to the capital of Valeria. Despite its wealth and teeming streets, the city was teeming with refugees fleeing the civil war that had turned much of the countryside into battlegrounds. A hub, a teeming melting pot of goods, merchants, and less savory figures alike, Eldoria actually managed to thrive.

It was a world where gold was superior to ethics and questions were abandoned as long as the coin kept its value.

The name bit deep into his subconscious as his mind wandered. He remembered nothing about such places or trade and money, but their words had echoed in his mind: payday, bargain, sell him off. Everything that defined a person was nothing but a price. Kael took a pull from his flask and nodded toward the boy. "What in the world was that earlier? The way he panicked-screaming like a banshee at those damned rabbits."

"He's probably touched in the head," Thug One said, hunching forward over the fire. "Can't blame him, really. A kid like that, seein' all that carnage."

"Doesn't matter," Kael said snappishly. "We need him quiet, not causing trouble."

The boy sat silent, gnawing on the bread. His face did not show it, but a flicker of understanding stirred. It was something fundamental the rabbits' deaths had shown-a fact he had not known was: they lay there, their eyes frozen, shining without seeing, and they would never move again. And in that one moment, he knew what death was. Its certainty weighed heavy on his stomach.